Ken Scalir
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Ken Scalir | |
|---|---|
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| Born | March 25, 1970 |
| Occupation | actor, politician |
Kenneth Scalir (born March 25, 1970) is an American actor and politician, best known for his wacky antics on dating-related television programs.
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[edit] Early Years
Ken's unique personality and short attention span caused a number of problems for him at school. By the time he completed high school, he had attended 12 different schools, despite the fact that his family had not moved since he was born. He did have some success in college, receiving his Bachelor's Degree in Political Science from UCSB, and his Master's Degree from CSULB.
While Ken had not yet made his mark on television or the political landscape, his teenage and young adult years were peppered with several bizarre incidents that had effects on popular culture and current events.
In the mid-1980s, Ken became obsessed with the relatively new pay-per-call 976 numbers. Upon receiving their first unexpected high phone bill, Ken's parents forbade him to continue calling such numbers, and they contacted Pacific Bell to have these premium numbers blocked from their phone. To their frustration, they were informed that no such mechanism existed for blocking such calls, and that they would be responsible for any calls placed -- even if made by their minor son. After filing a protest with the California Public Utilities Commission, Ken's $17,000 worth of 976 calls were eventually forgiven, and California state law required the telephone companies to give customers an option to block such numbers. The Scalir household was the first to receive such blocking, and more customer rights followed in the coming years related to 976 and 1-900 numbers.
In 1994, shortly after the Northridge earthquake, Scalir called into a radio program where then-Los Angeles-mayor Richard Riordan was a guest. Using the context of the fact that Riordan should still be proud of being mayor of earthquake-rattled Los Angeles, he baited Riordan into making a derogatory comment about the city of Bakersfield. Riordan quipped, "I'm definitely glad I'm not mayor of Bakersfield. Bakersfield is boring!" Residents of Bakersfield, who were within range of the AM radio program, were insulted, and the resulting outrage made front page news in the Los Angeles Times. Eventually, Riordan calmed the Bakersfield masses by agreeing to spend a full day in their city.
In 1995, Ken was one of the "freaks" often appearing on the Kevin and Bean radio program, which aired on 106.7 KROQ-FM in Los Angeles. The two morning DJs referred to him as "Ken Geek-of-the-World", and invited him to join the other "freaks" of the show to take a cross-country bus trip where a Pennsylvania Christmas tree would be retrived. Ken flaked on the commitment to appear at the event, and was subsequently banned from the Kevin and Bean show.
[edit] Television Appearances
Ken's first appearance on television was on MTV's Singled Out. After appearing four times on the program as part of the pool of 50 male contestants, he was selected as the "picker" for a fifth program, where he had the choice of 50 female contestants. While the eventual "winner" of the date with Ken acted happy on television, she gave him a fake phone number, and the date itself never commenced.
Ken also appeared twice on the revival of The Dating Game in 1998. He was not selected either time by the female pickers.
Also in 1998, Ken was twice a guest on the Love Connection show. Cast as the picker, his initial date was a disaster. However, the show's producers found him sufficiently entertaining to where he was brought back a second time, sharing the experiences of dating the woman the audience had originally chosen for him. That date also failed to work out, though it was not as troubled as the first one.
Ken's third television stint in 1998 was his lone non-dating television appearance. He was a contestant on The Keenen Ivory Wayans Show, where he twice sang the Village People song "Macho Man" as part of the show's talent competition. Scalir's off-key singing voice and awkward dancing skills were clearly self-deprecating humor, and the song selection of "Macho Man" was meant to poke fun at Ken's skinny physique. After Wayans was amused by the initial audience reaction to Ken, he arranged a performance on a second show, where Ken was dressed in brightly-colored tights. He did not win the $500 prize on either episode, as the largely African-American audience favored the more serious black performers with actual musical talent.
Scalir is perhaps best known for his week-long dating saga, presented on the reality show Blind Date in 2006. The producers of the show arranged 5 different dates for Ken, which aired consecutively from Monday through Friday. As had been the case on other dating shows, none of Ken's dates worked out, and host Roger Lodge labeled Scalir a "lost cause" at the close of the final episode.
Though "Singled Out" managed to survive two more seasons after Ken's appearance, the other shows were not so lucky. Every other show Ken appeared on was canceled at the end of the season, including the long-running "Blind Date."
[edit] City Council Campaign
Scalir's long-time interest in politics culminated in a campaign for city council in 2002. He ran for one of the newly-created seats for the San Fernando Valley city, which was to be formed if the valley was successful in its campaign to secede from Los Angeles. Despite blanketing his district with thousands of signs, Ken finished 6th out of 7 candidates, managing to beat only the candidate who did not campaign at all. Ken was also fined $530 for campaign sign rule violations. However, the defeat ended up being a non-issue, as the valley secession drive failed, and only the Los Angeles city council was considered valid.
